Calling for a Return to the Doctrinal Ideals and Kingdom Ethics of the First Reformation
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/remember-to-remember-part-1/id1433823311?i=1000710247721
SermonAudio blocks anyone who is deemed 'woke' or who embraces too robust a view of works or sacraments. They are guardians of orthodoxy or so they deem - but then they allow this kind of heretical filth. Scudder's sermons receive no sanction or censorship.
https://americanreformer.org/2024/07/samuel-davies-colonial-presbyterian-patriot/
My eye was drawn to the locales mentioned in the opening paragraph. They are well known to me as my family has made a point of visiting these places for historical reference - and they're not too far away from where we live.
Samuel Davies (1723-1761) is also a name well known to me from my days spent in OP and PCA circles. He is a titan in American Presbyterianism but to be honest I hadn't give Samuel Davies a lot of thought in quite a few years. So by this point I was hooked and decided to read the article.
https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/reagan-evil-empire/
During the Cold War there were three years that stand out - periods in which tension was high and the world stood on the brink of nuclear conflagration. 1962 easily ranks first with the Cuban Missile Crisis. 1973 usually ranks second in connection to the Yom Kippur War and the US raising of the DefCon alert to an elevated '3' - signalling preparations for potential war. The DefCon was not raised by the Americans in 1983, but Moscow was on high alert and many consider it to be one of the most tense periods of the Cold War.
The news is focused on Christmas-related human-interest stories, shopping deals, travel woes, actresses who market their bodies and then complain when they aren't treated with due respect, and the latest absurdities flowing from Trump's reprobate mouth.
The Right is playing up the gruesome murder on a New York City subway - apparently it would have been less of an atrocity if the perpetrator had been a legal resident or citizen. There also remains a fixation on the case of the murdered United Healthcare CEO, even while there are many brutal murders that take place every day and yet don't receive much if any attention or media and law enforcement resources. In other words this murder matters because the victim is part of the same millionaire class the media represents and there is a fear that such vigilantism might spread. Certainly the public outcry of support for the shooter has generated alarm.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/03/08/how-madeleine-albright-got-the-war-the-u-s-wanted/
Elich speaks of the US wanting war in 1999 and setting up negotiations with the Serbs to fail. This is true but is no less so when it comes to the first phase of the Yugoslav break-up in 1991. The US played a role in facilitating the split that would lead to independent nations like Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia - and a bombing campaign in 1995.
It is both sad and frustrating to me that some who are eager to take certain portions of Scripture at face value – like the commands to turn the other cheek, or the teachings regarding the Kingdom of Heaven will at the same time completely ignore the other parts, about mammon and the nature of the world and worldliness.
For some time I've occasionally listened to a podcast called Catholics Against Militarism. It's flawed – it is Roman Catholic after all, but interesting at times. Protestant Constantinians and Dominionists are quick to dismiss all such anti-war sentiments as 'Anabaptist' even while they ignore the long and fairly impressive 'peace' testimony found within the spectrum that is Rome.
In recent days, with the Ukraine War, the coronation of Charles III, as well as some Evangelical commentaries tangentially connected to these issues, I've been reminded of the still extant Churchill Cult and the inroads it has made within the Christian community. This needs to be addressed.
The collapse of the Yellow Corporation in August 2023 made a brief splash in the news cycle – probably a little too brief. Many individuals and analysts have reason to be concerned when considering the volatility of the US economy as demonstrated by not only this collapse but the numerous banks that have faced difficulty and near collapse over the past year or so.
In light of current events Moldova and Georgia have applied for EU membership. For its part, Moldova has been engaged in a tug-of-war between the West and Moscow and yet unlike Ukraine and Georgia it has been able thus far to avoid violence.
From the Olympics to computing, from news to politics, the Russians are everywhere in the news or more accurately the Anti-Russian propaganda campaign is everywhere. This is by far the worst we've seen in forty years, since the tense period accompanying Reagan's ascent to the US presidency. Almost immediately he began a rapid military buildup and a series of aggressive military Psyops directed against Russia. The US pushed the Russian security perimeter by air, land, and sea. At that time the Soviets were in dire fear of an American First Strike and became very edgy and the tension led to events like the shootdown of KAL 007.
If Russia invades Ukraine, then Putin will fall for the trap NATO has set for him. As anyone who partakes of any news is sure to know, the Western propaganda campaign is running white hot, to the point that even questioning the official narrative can take down a high ranking admiral – as was seen recently in Germany. The US and NATO are doing all they can to provoke Moscow. This run-up to war is a campaign in itself and there are several angles to consider.
The January 2022 street protests in Kazakhstan which have received considerable Western news coverage seem at last to be calming down. On the one hand it appeared to be a grass roots uprising in protest of surging inflation, fuel prices and (at least in part) frustration with social restrictions on activism and free speech.
This was a good and insightful interview with much to
consider. Kovalik's 'The Plot to Scapegoat Russia' caught my eye a few years
ago. Kovalik is one of the few voices on the Left that's critical of the
Democratic Party and its increasingly hysterical Anti-Russia campaign. This
conversation is wide-ranging and touches on several important issues, ones critical
to understand if we're to navigate the present situation and filter the many
voices that seek to dominate our thinking.
Is General Milley a traitor? The Trumpites would have you think so. As a Christian my concerns to this end are minimal at best. Let the dead bury their dead. Let the Babylons and the Babylonians scheme and betray one another. Whatever faction is ascendant – it's still Babylon in the end.
And yet there's a concern here on a deeper level because it
touches on fundamental understandings of the nature of US government. This is
particularly important given the way Evangelical leaders have fused Liberalism
with Christianity and have thus generated a series of extra-biblical
imperatives regarding citizenship, voting, general participation, capitalist
economics, and the like.
https://www.newsweek.com/exclusive-inside-militarys-secret-undercover-army-1591881
The stage for all of this was set in the aftermath of 9/11
and increasingly as people no longer consider the surrendering of their privacy
and data to be anything controversial, and as generations of lock-step, wave
the flag, support the troops, my country right or wrong nationalism has come to
dominate – this story isn't even controversial.
Has Xi extended his power or has he been rebuked and curtailed by elements within the Beijing bureaucracy? It depends on how you read the 19th Congress and interpret its events.
Clearly on a war trajectory with the United States with the
flashpoints being Taiwan and Hong Kong, one could argue that Xi's plans have
been limited or restrained. The generals are resistant to his plans which would
result in inevitable confrontation. No one doubts that Beijing could wound the
American military – perhaps even inflict some stunning losses but ultimately
the Chinese military thinks the cost would be too great. And for Xi, that would
mean the end of his rule. And thus one interpretation was that this Congress
represents a rebuke of Xi's aspirations.
And yet on the other hand Xi's maneuvering suggests a
consolidation of power within the bureaucracy. In other words he's bit by bit setting
himself up for more autonomy, for more comprehensive control which will become
manifest in the near future. As master of the Beijing bureaucracy he won't
easily be stopped.
The panicked reaction to Trump's planned troop withdrawal from both Iraq and Afghanistan has been palpable. The media and the US Establishment in general are hostile to the move and trying to sound the alarm. And yet at the same time they struggle with providing solid reasons for remaining in these seemingly endless conflicts – both of which have gone sideways and evolved into something other than what they originally were purported to be.